WILKES-BARRE — A grievance filed on behalf of city hall employees
earlier this month raises questions regarding the status of the
re-established mayor’s help line and salary for its coordinator.

The Laborers’ International Union of North America Local 1310 in
Wilkes-Barre filed a grievance about two weeks ago arguing that the
mayor’s help line should be a union position and been put out for bid.
The position had been a union position prior to being eliminated by
former Mayor Tom Leighton. When Mayor Tony George reinstated the help
line coordinator, he made it a non-union management position.

He selected Carol Smith for the job at her former city rental inspector
salary of $52,503 — $22,287 more than the job paid in 2004 before it
was eliminated. If that job were to exist today, after accounting for a 3
percent annual raise included in the union contract, the salary would
be $43,080.

So we'll pay $52,503 for a switchboard operator? Or, shall we say, a glorified secretary who answers the Mayor's needless help line?

Here! I've got a number that someone at City Hall should be dialing, and soon: 829-1341. Yeah, someone who luxuriates in sophistry by way of discursiveness needs help. Real help, that is.

Monday, February 22, 2016

Though Siniawa would entertain offers to sell the entire property or
portions of it, he said he still hopes he could have the property
cleared this spring and construction started on the development within
the year. He wouldn't say exactly what he's planning now, but said the
project might be developed "piecemeal."

Try this Times Leader story dated Fri, Dec. 22, 2006

WILKES-BARRE –Voicing praise for the
developers, the Wilkes-Barre Area School Board voted unanimously to
approve the district’s participation in a tax increment financing plan
to fund renovations to the Murray Complex.

Wilkes-Barre
attorney Frank Hoegen, speaking for the Siniawa family – the
Scranton-based developer of the $22 million project in the century-old
warehouse space – said the condominiums, shops and restaurants would
serve as a catalyst for further development.

“The
Siniawas are going to borrow $15 million and pledge their properties as
collateral. They are taking a huge personal risk to take a blighted
area in downtown Wilkes-Barre and turn it into a showcase,” Hoegen said.

According
to the resolution passed Thursday, the school district will join with
Luzerne County and the city of Wilkes-Barre to develop a tax increment
financing plan to fund $2.2 million of the debt for the project’s first
phase. That phase calls for 55 condominium units and businesses that
will generate an estimated $313,000 in taxes beyond the $20,000 the 480,000-square-foot site now nets the district.

“That
increase will be created by virtue of the improvement to the property,”
Hoegen said, “and the difference will be channeled to the (Luzerne
County) Redevelopment Authority to pay the debt service on the loan.”He
said the district will continue to receive the $20,000 in taxes it
currently receives, as well as mercantile, transfer and income taxes
generated by the property.

At
the end of the 15-year term of the financing plan, the additional tax
revenue will be split between the city, the county and the school
district at a rate yet to be agreed upon, according to the resolution.

Luzerne
County Commissioners approved participation in the plan earlier
Thursday. Hoegen said the city is expected to decide soon whether to
join in.

Project
architect Alexander J. Belavitz said the plan is to “have the shovel in
the ground” to start the project by late spring or early summer.

So, except for some weed growth, here we are in 2016 and not much progress has been made.More accurately put, the site has been all but abandoned. If you ask me, this is where the new E.L. Meyer Coughlin facility should be built.

Anyway, the question still begs. What's the latest on this so-called project?

Saturday, February 20, 2016

WILKES-BARRE — Louis Elmy, former president of the Wilkes-Barre Area School Board, faces federal drug trafficking charges that could land him in prison for up to 30 years.

Elmy, 51, who works as a counselor at Luzerne County Correctional Facility, was charged Friday with felony counts of possession with intent to distribute crack cocaine and being a habitual drug user in possession of a firearm.

All of which helps to confirm that my November 'no confidence' vote whereas the school board is concerned was the correct vote. Besides, it seems as if electing people to that school board of ill repute is like providing them with a shortcut to the hoosegow.

Tuesday, February 16, 2016

There's no point in beating up on a newly seated mayor who happens to be disdainfully saddled with the former mayor's disputed budget. That is, a budget the new mayor fervently claims is a financial albatross. But if this so-called defect-spending budget now demands that cutbacks be made, we have to wonder why they weren't proposed in the first place--before the repeated attempts to enact a hefty property tax increase.

Short-term, the very last thing the bedraggled residents of this city can afford is a hefty property tax increase. Long-term, they can likewise ill-afford an increased debt service payment. All of which demands that the current team arrive at a balanced 2016 budget by way of increased revenues, a reduction in the size of the workforce, less material usage and, or witchcraft. As for 2017, the aforementioned suggestions are wholly applicable, sans the prohibitively expensive eye of newt. .

And laying blame on the former mayor for any perceived current woes addresses nothing and solves nothing. Buck up, deal with it and let's move forward. What else is there?